d it nearly smothered me; for, you see, there
had been one or two casks of tar on the decks, which had stove when the
ship was going down, and the tar got up to the top of the water before I
did. It prevented me from seeing at first, but I heard the guns firing
as signals of distress." Here Turner drank some ale.
"Well," said he, after a short pause, "I may as well finish my story. As
soon as I could clear the tar from my eyes, I saw the main topsail
halyard-block about level with the water's edge about eight or ten yards
from me; so I swam to it and rode on it, holding on by the halyards, and
then I looked about me. The fore, main, and mizzentops were all above
water, as was a part of the bowsprit, and also part of the ensign-staff,
with the flag hoisted--for, you see, messmates, we went down in only
thirteen and a half fathom water, that is, about eighty feet; and, as I
said before, she measured sixty-six feet from the keelson up to the
taffrail; and she grounded as nearly upright as a vessel could; for the
lighter, which was fast to leeward when she went down, caught the main
yard, which helped to right her as she sank--but the lighter went down
with her. Well, as I looked round, I saw the admiral's baker in the
mizzen shrouds, and there was the body of the woman I had dragged out of
the port rolling about close to him. The baker was an Irishman, of the
name of Claridge; and I called out to him, 'Bob, reach out your hand and
catch hold of that woman, I daresay she is not dead.'
"He said, 'She's dead enough; it's no use to lay hold of her.'
"I answered, 'She is not dead.' He caught hold of the woman and hung her
head over one of the rattlings of the mizzen shrouds, and there she
swung by her chin till a wash came and lifted her off, and then she
rolled about again. Just then one of the captains of the frigates came
up in his boat. I waved my hand toward the woman--he stopped pulling,
the men dragged her into the boat, and laid her in the sternsheets.
"'My man,' said the captain, 'I must pick up those who are in more
danger than you.'
"'All right, sir,' said I; 'I'm safe moored here.'
"There was one of our men hanging on the mainstay, and roaring like a
bull, as he tried to climb by it out of the water. Had he only remained
quiet, he would have done well enough. The boat took him off first, and
the others of the people who were clinging about the masts and rigging,
including the baker and myself. It then pul
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